Xiong Xiancai is headed to jail after he pretended to be an Olympics official and took money, claiming he could get seats to the opening ceremonies.

Xiong Xiancai, a 24-year-old unemployed man from China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, told a woman surnamed Chen he was an employee of the “marketing strategy department” of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), the Beijing News said on Friday.

Xiong took 52,800 yuan from Chen “in the name of buying opening ceremony tickets to the 29th Olympiad”, the paper said.

Xiong was sentenced to three years in jail for his crimes, and was fined 3,000 yuan. The courts say this was a lenient punishment, due to Xiong’s voluntary admission of guilt.

Via The Guardian